In the Background

I’ve learned a lot about my wedding from other people. As you might expect, I focused on my [few] lines and my pending husband, the rest of the details escaping me the way a captivating dream disappears in the daylight.

What I fell in love with about the Cathedral was the magnitude of it’s splendor. Glossy cool marble floors, intricate and mysterious stained glass, a surmounting altar, the resounding sound of the organ from the upper balcony, and the pews that surrounded both sides of the center point in perfect order. I remember once being worried that guests might enter unknowingly through the rear part of the sanctuary, finding themselves in the unassuming pews that were actually facing the back of the service. Embarrassed, they would have to retreat around the side of the altar towards the on-facing crowd and resume their place elsewhere. I forgot about this fear.

Instead, what I have since learned is that we did have a visitor on the ‘opposing side,’ if you will. A small Hispanic lady- no more than five feet tall- had somehow made her way into the sanctuary and sat in the vacant rows that served as the low backdrop for the wedding ceremony. Perhaps she was a nun, or maybe just a Cathedral regular, but the wedding didn’t stop her from conducting her Saturday business as usual. What started off as a few signs of the cross evolved into a game of musical pews. Changing seating intermittently while continuing to partake in her hand signals, the woman quickly became unaware of anything else sacred that was actually taking place.

I can say with great thanks that only a few bore witness to this distracting behavior, namely my brother from the balcony, where he was playing his trumpet.

In her culminating act of worship, she lay prostrate on the ground in the center aisle in the shape of a cross. Her face-down serenity caused a small murmur in the balcony in regards to the state of her health. She eventually got up and left our wedding.

I’ve heard my fair share about wedding crashers and the like, but I venture to say she takes it to a new level. I only wish that I had timed it perfectly- that I had witnessed this for myself in the middle of my ceremony. I assure you her solitude would have ended there.